Good News & Bad News

There’s good news and bad news in this post…

The good news: A new release from Free Floating is in the near future.

The bad news: It will be the last.

Fade to Silence

It has been some time coming, but I have finally decided to formally retire the Free Floating Music Label.

This should really come as a surprise to nobody, given that the last release from the label (Michael Meara’s excellent Contemplation 2) came out way back in January of 2015, and the Free Floating website has been AWOL for months.

To be honest, I decided quite a while ago to call it quits but didn’t know how or when to do it.

The simple reason for bringing Free Floating to an end is that my personal musical priorities and focus have shifted. While ambient music still moves and inspires me deeply, I have increasingly been spending time exploring jazz, as both a listener and a musician. I have been learning to read music and teaching myself music theory in pursuit of greater ability and understanding. I’ve been immersing myself and am inspired and energized by it all.

And so it is time to move on from Free Floating. However, I want to make sure that the music does not simply fall down the digital memory hole and get lost. I am proud of the music that Free Floating has released and want to make sure that it remains available to those seeking this kind of music.

The bottom line is that the music released by Free Floating will not be going away. Currently nine of Free Floating’s thirty-two releases are available at the always-free Internet Archive. My plan is to ensure that all Free Floating releases have a home there indefinitely and so I will work at uploading the remainder of releases.

A Final Release

Rather than just put an end to the label right here, I would like to put together one last release as a way of drawing the curtain and providing a fitting sense of closure to the project.

And so very soon I will be putting a call out for contributions to one final compilation. I am looking forward to working one more time with some of the greatest ambient musicians out there. So, composers, keep that in mind as you hit the studio…

More information is forthcoming. Feel free to contact me with any questions or ideas.

So true. I was happy to resurrect some of this music (frome Janneh and M. Persson), so I know what you mean. I intend for the music to stay around for a long time, even after the label itself is technically gone.

Thanks so much for putting out such a great collection of calm and beautiful music.
Freefloatingmusic was (and is still) a place of solace for me since becoming a widower 3 years ago.
I love the fact that the music you selected is ‘truely’ ambient and healing.
Cheers! Dr L

Brad,
It was a pleasure to have found Free Floating Music on Bandcamp. I was just delving into Ambient Music at the time and each and every release was an absolute gem to listen to. FFM is one of the greats in independent Music Labels and it is fitting to the Labels premise to freely float out as it floated in, like the breath of meditation.

I hate to see FFM leave Bandcamp and would be willing to help figure a way in which we can keep it available there. Not that Archive.org is not a great place, but the exposure would be so limited.
Brian

Thank you Brad for your labour of love. I have just discovered this site last week and have accessed a few downloads. I’m a teacher of Special Needs children and found this music on youTube while searching for background music for some of my classes. Synchronicity as well since I just discovered Structures of Silence a few months ago. Thank you again and all the best for your future explorations into this wonderful gift of music.
Cheers Dave from downunder.